20170217-2nd Khutba - Shaykh Arsalan

Opening — Khutbah al-Haajah

Coming to Salatul Jum'ah with Humility

Brothers and sisters, as we come to Salatul Jum'ah today and every week — as we come to attend this act of worship, to pray to our Lord, to worship Allah — it is important that we remember and never forget that we need to come to this active worship in a state of humility, in a state of humbleness. Because Allah says in the Quran:

That indeed the believers have attained success — they are those who are in khushu' in their prayers:

Those who come to prayer with khushu'. And Abdullah ibn Abbas, radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, commenting on this ayah of the Quran, he said:

He said, radiallahu ta'ala anhu, that when Allah says الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ — those who come to prayer in a state of khushu' — what does this mean? He said خَاشِعُونَ: these are people who are خَائِفُونَ. First of all, they are afraid. They show awe and reverence to Allah in the way that they behave and in the way that they feel inside. And then he said سَاكِنُونَ — and they are at rest. They are not restless in their prayer. They are not restless in their prayer — looking at the watch, or moving around restless, and not agitated inside either — but at rest, at peace.

خَائِفُونَ سَاكِنُونَ، أَيْ هُمْ خَائِفُونَ مُتَذَلِّلُونَ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ — he explains further and says these are people who show humility in their prayer, in their act of worship. They worship Allah with humility. Not with a sense of pride. Not with a sense of entitlement — "I am taking out valuable time from my day, from my work day; I'm taking out valuable time and giving it to Allah, so now I deserve something in return, so I have done Allah a favor." Not with that attitude of pride and entitlement. But with the attitude of humility and true humbleness and lowliness before Allah, as a slave behaves in front of his master and king.

Because that's our identity, brothers and sisters. That's our identity. Our true identity is that we are slaves of Allah, and He is our Lord. And until we recognize who we are, we will not be able to achieve what Allah created us to achieve in this world. Until we know who we are — and that's who we are.

So we must come to salah, to prayer, to worship — including Salatul Jum'ah — with this feeling of humility before Allah.

مُتَذَلِّلُونَ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ لِجَلَالِ اللَّهِ — why do we feel humility before Allah? Because of the majesty of who Allah is. Because of how great He is. And the more that we realize the greatness of Allah, it will naturally infuse our hearts with reverence and awe for Him. And once that awe and reverence takes over our quloob, then we will naturally come to salah with a feeling of humility. As we sit and listen to the admonition of Allah, or about Allah, it will have a greater effect, and our entire experience of the Jumu'ah service will be much more than it would be otherwise.

Knowing Yourself to Know Your Lord

الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ — we need to come to Salatul Jum'ah in a state of humility, out of fear and awe for the majesty of Allah. And like I said, brothers and sisters, this will come naturally if we know who Allah is. And in the past, the ulama used to say:

If you want to know who Allah is, know who you are. Whoever knows himself knows his Lord. The more that I am honest with myself about who I am, the more I will naturally have fear and reverence for Allah. Because if I am honest with myself, I will have to admit that I am a human being full of mistakes, a human being full of shortcomings. Recognizing our mistakes and our shortcomings is what makes us human. We are not angels. We are people who make mistakes every day of our lives — unless we choose to be deluded about ourselves. That is the reality, and that is what makes us human: to recognize that truth.

The reason I say that is because our forefather — the father of humanity — established that human practice of recognizing our mistake. Whereas the father of the shayateen, Iblis, established the contrary practice of rejecting the truth that he made a mistake. So if we make mistakes and yet remain deluded, and keep telling ourselves that we are alright, that there is nothing wrong with us, then we are not following in the footsteps of our forefather Adam. Rather we are following in the footsteps of the forefather of the shayateen, Iblis.

The Story of Adam and Iblis

What am I talking about? I am talking about the story that is mentioned in the Quran repeatedly — the story of Adam and Iblis, the creation of Adam alayhi salam. When Adam alayhi salam was created, in that event that happened in the past, Allah tells us that both Adam and Iblis made mistakes. They both disobeyed Allah. Allah ordered Iblis to perform sujood to Adam alayhi salam, and he disobeyed — he did not perform sujood. And Allah ordered Adam not to approach the tree, and he disobeyed and approached the tree. Both of them had shortcomings. Both of them made mistakes.

But the difference, brothers and sisters, between our father versus the father of the shayateen, is this aspect that we are talking about: that Adam alayhi salam admitted his mistake. He recognized that he had fallen short, that he had disobeyed Allah. And so he came to Allah with humility:

He said, along with our mother Hawwa — both of them said: رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنْفُسَنَا — "We have wronged ourselves, our Lord. Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. We have done something wrong. We have committed injustice to ourselves." وَإِنْ لَمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا — "And if You do not forgive us and show us rahma," لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ — "then we will surely be among the losers."

This is what makes us human — to recognize our faults and to be true to ourselves. But Shaytan was deluded with himself. He refused to recognize that he had done anything wrong. Instead he put the blame on Allah:

He said, "O Allah, because You have misled me, because You have caused me to slip, I will do this and that to the progeny of this man." This is the attitude of Shaytan — to refuse to admit that we have done anything wrong, and always put the blame on someone else.

The Reality of Our Sins and Their Consequences

The more that we are willing to recognize the truth — the truth that we are sinful — the more we will be able to deal with Allah with humility. And we are sinful:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2499; Ibn Majah, Hadith 4251)

Every child of Adam is sinful. We commit sins every day of our lives — the way that we use our limbs, the way that we use our eyes by looking at things that Allah doesn't want us to look at, the way that we use our hearing, the way that we use our tongues, the way that we talk about others, about Allah in ways that Allah does not approve of, the way that we use our hands and our fingertips to tap and to type things that only Allah knows — and we know that Allah doesn't like that. The way that we use our stomach, the things that we consume that we know Allah has made forbidden. We commit sins every day of our lives — the way that we earn our livelihood, the way that we treat and mistreat our family members: our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, the way that we lose our temper.

We commit sins every day of our lives, brothers and sisters. If we are honest with ourselves, we cannot run away from this truth.

And we have to remember also that every sin that we commit has a consequence — in this life, before the hereafter. Every sin that I commit and you commit, brothers and sisters, causes our hearts to become hard. The sins harden the heart. We wonder why we do not weep when we read the Book of Allah. Why we cannot weep when we pray to Allah. Why we cannot shed tears when we see what is happening to our brothers and sisters — of oppression and torture around the world. Why our eyes don't shed tears when we hear admonition about Allah and the hereafter. Because the hearts have become hard. Why have the hearts become hard? Because of sin. Because of disobedience to Allah.

Disobedience to Allah hardens the heart. It blinds the heart. It makes us unable to distinguish good from bad, truth from falsehood, virtue from ugliness. It makes us unable to figure out who is right and who is wrong, unable to discern what Allah loves and what Allah hates. It blinds the heart. Why does that happen? Because of our dhunub — because of our disobedience of Allah. Every sin causes us to become distant from Allah. We become distant from Him:

Says Allah — that there is a hijab, there is a ran, there is a veil that gets created between us and Allah every time we disobey Him. And then we wonder why we don't feel a connection with Allah in our lives — because of the presence of dhunub, because of the presence of sins in our lives.

And also, brothers and sisters, sins cause us to find it difficult to obey Allah. It makes it difficult to get up for Fajr in the morning on time, to dig down deep into our pockets to give for the sake of Allah. Why do we find it difficult to do that? Because of our sins. Our sins have consequences, brothers and sisters. If we understand that and if we remember that, then we will naturally come to Allah in a state of humility — not in a state of pride, not with a sense of entitlement, but with a sense of humbleness, as an abd, as a humble lowly servant of our Lord who needs His forgiveness.

I say this and I ask Allah's forgiveness for me and for you. So ask His forgiveness, and the winner is the one who asks His forgiveness.

Second Khutbah — Do Not Despair; Turn to Allah in Repentance

Brothers and sisters, my intent is not to cause you to fall into despair. My goal is not to tell you these things so that we fall into despair. No. My goal is to encourage myself and you to seek the forgiveness of Allah and to make a resolve to change. Until we recognize the need to seek Allah's forgiveness, we never will — or we will not do it enough. So the first step is to recognize that there is a need, and then the next step is to seek Allah's forgiveness and to make a resolve to change. Not to fall into despair.

The Prophet ﷺ — yes, he said كُلُّ بَنِي آدَمَ خَطَّاءٌ — but he also said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2499; Ibn Majah, Hadith 4251)

He said that every child of Adam commits sins, but he also said that the best of those who commit sins are those who frequently turn back to Allah. We need to do that. We need to repent to Allah frequently. How frequently? Well, Rasulullah ﷺ said that he seeks the forgiveness of Allah one hundred times every day. He ﷺ sought the forgiveness of Allah one hundred times every day — and he was infallible, he was ma'sum, he was protected by Allah from falling into sin. Which tells us, which shows us, that we need to at least turn to Allah in asking forgiveness at least one hundred times a day.

Do we do that? And not just with the tongue, but with the heart as well. And when we say:

That I mean that. If I say that one hundred times at least a day — if I truly recognize my sins — I will do that, brothers and sisters. We have to make a routine of doing that. We have to find time to do that. And we have to do that with as much sincerity as we can. There needs to be a feeling of remorse, a genuine feeling of regret as we do that.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4252; also reported by Imam Ahmad in al-Musnad)

That the essence of repentance is the feeling of nadam — the feeling of remorse and regret. If we do that, brothers and sisters, then insha'Allah we have nothing to despair about.

The Danger of Persistence in Sin

But the problem becomes multiplied when we couple disobedience of Allah with persistence in our disobedience. Allah says in the Quran:

Allah talks about the people whom Allah loves, and He says they are those people who, when they commit a sin, when they wrong themselves, when they commit an act of indecency — they remember Allah and they immediately seek His forgiveness, because who can forgive sins except Allah. And then Allah says وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا — they are not persistent in what they do. They don't go on repeating that sin without ever turning back to Allah with a sincere repentance.

As long as we turn back to Allah frequently in sincere repentance, there is nothing to despair about. But if we don't do that — if we go on disobeying Allah and act in the shaitani way of being deluded, as if we have done nothing wrong, as if everything is alright, as if we are not to blame and somebody else is to blame, and we feel a sense of entitlement and feel proud — that's when things become problematic.

And you know what else becomes a big problem? When we commit a sin publicly, feeling no shame about it. Because the Prophet ﷺ said:

He said ﷺ that my entire ummah can be forgiven except for those who sin publicly. And sinning publicly means committing the action publicly — and it also means to do something privately, as Allah is covering my fault, but then I go and expose myself shamelessly, take a picture of myself and put it on YouTube or on Facebook, feeling no shame about what I've done. That's when a sin becomes compounded and becomes a huge problem.

But as long as we are on the path of regular sincere repentance to Allah, then it doesn't matter for how long we have been sinning, doesn't matter how many sins I have committed. Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6607)

That actions are judged according to the last of them. So it may be that a person has spent 80 years of his life or her life running away from Allah — but if they realize what they have done and they turn back to Allah with a sincere repentance and then die just a few days later, إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتِيمِ — actions are judged according to the last of them. So there is no need to despair, brothers and sisters, and lose hope.

Practical Steps of Repentance

Finally, I close with this, insha'Allah — there are a couple of practical things that we can do to express our sincere repentance to Allah.

First: Give Charity

Rasulullah ﷺ said that charity puts out the wrath of Allah and pushes away an evil ending:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 664)

So once we realize that we have committed a mistake, rush, brothers and sisters, to give charity. Every Jumu'ah — as you come to Jumu'ah, before you come to Jumu'ah — put something in the charity box as an expression of repentance to Allah.

Second: Perform Wudu and Pray Two Rak'ah

And lastly and finally, another piece of advice from Rasulullah ﷺ — something practical that we can do to express our repentance. He said ﷺ in a hadith that is sahih, related by Imam Ahmad and others, on the authority of Ali ibn Abi Talib, who narrates from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, who says: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say — whenever a person commits a sin and then he or she performs wudu, performs it well, and then prays two rak'ah, just two rak'ah, and then after finishing those two rak'ah implores Allah for forgiveness — whenever someone does that, he said Allah forgives him or her.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1521; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 406; Musnad Imam Ahmad, Hadith 5)

Closing Du'a

May Allah forgive our sins. May Allah grant us a sincere repentance. May Allah make us firm upon our repentance. May Allah make us among those who come to prayer with humility, who come to prayer with focus, who come to prayer with lowliness, who come to prayer with khushu'. May Allah make us among the people of khushu'. May Allah protect us from the disease of arrogance and pride. May Allah forgive us our sins. Ameen. Ameen. Ameen.